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After years of successful painting, I've hit a first. I used too much ink on a model and I don't want to strip the whole thing. How can I clean dried ink without losing what's underneath? Would flow release do the trick?

- netgeist

Depending on the ink/wash I've had luck with my "drybrush" some water, and a little steady pressure.

Think you boned mate, wash "once dry" is kinda like normal paint it kinda sticks to the other colour.

This might be good time to bring up using a varnish as a "save point".

I generally will use either a matte or gloss varnish after a step in the painting process (depending on what's coming next). It seals in what's already been done.

So for example I've laid down the base coats and now its time to add a wash. I'll hit the model with a gloss coat. Then apply the oil wash. Let it dry then hit it with Matte before highlights.

I know it doesn't help now but might help in the future. Good luck man.

some thinner, like white spirit but really thinned down, may work, not sure though. The aim would be to slightly re-activate the wash and soak it up with tissue or something.

Another would be tooth paste. Tooth paste is a very light abrasive, i've used it to get marks off walls after parties and its very effective at not ruining the paint. May work with a brush just gently easing it up, but no telling how it would affect the paint below.

I was playing with lemon juice on a model to remove blue tack and it re-activated the paint, but only just so a very light rub with a bit of kitchen roll dampened with lemon juice might do it.

What kind of ink is the big issue. If it is a "hobby ink" you can try rubbing it off with a bit of solvent on a Q-Tip.

Regular inks are normally pretty easy, bit of alcohol on a paper towel and you can wipe it right off.

Crazy enough, you can also use dry erase markers for a lot of that sort of thing. They have a bit of solvent in the marker ink that will soften what you right over. After that, quickly wipe it off. Repeat as needed. Doesn't work for everything, but it is pretty simple and easy to control.

Paint over and re ink? Surely 2 more layers wont hurt